


With His Kiss the Riot Starts

by darrenandaaron



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell, Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 22:51:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18214724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darrenandaaron/pseuds/darrenandaaron
Summary: “Grantaire, I’m gonna hold you forever, the wind will never change on us, as long as we stay together it will always be like this.” He kisses Grantaire’s forehead and snuggles around him.Grantaire’s so tired that he doesn’t manage to poke holes in Enjolras’s optimism.ORThe Enjolras/Grantaire Hadestown AU that nobody asked for





	With His Kiss the Riot Starts

**Author's Note:**

> UHHHHH so I saw Hadestown back in January and I died. Now it's open for previews on Broadway so I thought I would post this! Go see this show cos omg it is so beautiful.

Grantaire’s sat in the corner of the back room at the Musain, as he did at most of the ABC meetings. He didn’t agree with anything his friends said when they were back here, all their misguided ways to fix the world. But they were his friends so he came anyway.

Okay, and he came to admire Enjolras. Enjolras and Grantaire didn’t really hang out too much outside of ABC meetings. Enjolras seemed to tolerate Grantaire at best, he seemed to despise him at most. Grantaire couldn’t blame him to be honest, all he did was sit in the corner and drink. Maybe sometimes he’d mumble a comment under his breath, and maybe sometimes Enjolras would hear it and say something back. And maybe sometimes that would turn into a three hour screaming match that Combeferre and Coufeyrac would then have to break up.

So no, Grantaire couldn’t blame him. But they would never see eye to eye. See, Enjolras was a working on a speech, a speech to put the world back in two, he says. Grantaire was a hungry young boy, he considered himself to be against the world, after all you can only look after yourself, Grantaire doesn’t have time for Enjolras, as pretty as he is, his words aren’t going to save the world. Humanity is inherently selfish and past saving, and although Enjolras would disagree, he’d be wrong. Grantaire’s main priority was where his next meal would come from, not saving the world.

And what a state the world was now. In the east, they had endless hurricanes whenever the seasons changed, the west kept getting forest fires. Enjolras thinks he’s going to change the world with his speech, but there’s nothing you can do to change the weather. To stop the seasons from tearing the earth apart whenever they alternate. These days fall comes early, spring comes late, the nights are long and cold and the days are short. There’s nothing you can do.

Grantaire used to just move cities when he faced storms like this. Hit the road and find some better shelter. He’d do anything to for once have his stomach be full of food and to not be a victim to the weather, anything.

Sometimes he wishes he hadn’t become so attached to his friends. To Enjolras. But in weather like this, Enjolras is the sun to Grantaire. He’s so beautiful you can’t look away, even though if you stare for too long you’re going to hurt yourself. He shines to bright. He’s warm too, on the rare occasion that Enjolras smiles at Grantaire, Grantaire will feel warm inside for days. Enjolras was a poor boy but he had a gift to give, the way he could make you feel with the use of his words was like magic. He could have a crowd of people listening to him and following him just from one of his speeches. He could make you see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is. Although Grantaire didn’t necessarily agree with what he was saying, watching Enjolras speak to a crowd, how he ignited such passion was mesmerizing.

Grantaire had seen how the world was, how cruel it could be. Grantaire knew how to survive, Enjolras knew how to live.

He doesn’t even realise that the meeting is over and everyone has left until it’s just him and Enjolras.

“Grantaire,” Enjolras is still packing up his papers, he’s not looking at Grantaire at all. “Did you listen to anything we said today?”

“Oh of course Your Greatness, I was all ears. Blah blah blah, social justice and all that jazz.”

“Grantaire, if you have no interest in our cause why do you even come to these meetings? To taunt us? To make yourself feel better?”

He really wishes Enjolras wouldn’t ask him things like that, it’s becoming so hard to lie to him. Because I want to admire you from afar because I know that’s the best I’ll ever get. But how could he even say that?

“No Enjolras, I come here because I can’t afford a TV and this is just as entertaining.”

“Be serious.”

“I am wild.”

“Grantaire, we do real work here if you can’t be bothered to join o-“

“Real work? What real work? Your speech? The speech that’s going to change the world?”

“Yes. My speech. My speech that is going to take this broken world and make it whole. You wait, my speech is going to bring the world back into the time it’s meant to be. Spring.”

“Please Enjolras, these days there is no spring or fall. We’re lucky summer comes at all!” He’s on his feet now, this he knows. Enjolras trying to get to the bottom of why Grantaire is really here is bad, dangerous. Arguing with Enjolras about his ridiculous speech is safe.

“You are so infuriating! Why can’t you believe in this cause?” Enjolras is in his face now, he looks furious. Grantaire can’t help but smile at how easy it is to rile him up.

“Because it’s blatantly not going to happen! I’m sorry Enjolras but you really think t-“

And then there are lips on his.

Enjolras’s lips.

Grantaire’s brain stops functioning for a second but then he’s back. He kisses back with everything he has because what the fuck is happening. It’s lips and teeth and tongue and they’re pressed up against each other and holy shit what the fuck is //happening//.

Grantaire reluctantly pulls back for air. “Come home with me.” Enjolras is looking at him and Grantaire can’t stop himself.

“And why should I do that?”

“Because I make you feel alive.”

And he lets Enjolras take him home.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s been a month since that night, and Grantaire can’t believe it but him and Enjolras are actually dating. He doesn’t understand how it’s happened but he doesn’t question it out of fear that Enjolras would then question it as well. They’re opposites, but they work somehow. When he fell, he fell in spite of himself, in love with Enjolras.

One night they’re lying in bed and Grantaire realises that he’d been alone for so long that he didn’t even know that he was lonely. All he’s ever known is how to be on his own, how to look after himself, how to hold his own. It’s a startling realization that all he wants to do is be with Enjolras, to hold him, to stay by his side no matter what. Being with Enjolras makes him forget how dark and cold the world is.

Enjolras has never been alone, he’s always had a crowd around him. Always had Combeferre and Coufeyrac on either side supporting him. They’re polar opposites, Grantaire has no idea how they’ve ended up working. Grantaire feels like he’s known him his entire life, he also feels like he doesn’t know anything about him yet, Enjolras constantly surprises him. The way he cares so deeply for his friends, for Grantaire. Although his cause still comes first, Enjolras loves his friends fiercely. The fact he likes being the little spoon, the way he’ll fall asleep with a book still in his hands while reading on the sofa. Enjolras is simultaneously the harshest and the softest person Grantaire has ever met. Grantaire loves him so much.

Grantaire is so scared of this falling through, of the wind changing, the weather changing, them changing. At some point they won’t be strong enough to face the storms the world is suffering through. He’s tired to the bone, usually he wouldn’t say his anxious ramblings to Enjolras but he’s so exhausted he feels drunk that he ends up telling Enjolras these fears, his voice is starting to slur.

“Grantaire, I’m gonna hold you forever, the wind will never change on us, as long as we stay together it will always be like this.” He kisses Grantaire’s forehead and snuggles around him. Grantaire’s so tired that he doesn’t manage to poke holes in Enjolras’s optimism.

  

* * *

 

 

Grantaire still goes to ABC meetings, and although him and Enjolras still disagree on points they never have their screaming matches anymore. They just have great angry sex instead. However, although things are going great for them, times are hard, and getting harder all the time. Enjolras’s magnificent speech still isn’t done.

They’re at another meeting when Grantaire, who yes may be a little bit drunk, can’t take it anymore. He stands and says to Enjolras in front of everyone, “So when you give this speech. Spring will come again!” Grantaire’s voice is dripping with sarcasm and even he can feel everyone bracing themselves for the impending fight.

“Yes, Grantaire.” Enjolras spits out.

“Why don’t you do it then?” He’s goading him, doing what he does best. Getting a reaction.

“It’s not finished.” He says through gritted teeth.

“Do it.”

He’s expecting Enjolras to shout at him. To tell him to stop rushing him and to ask him why he cares anyway and to let him have it. He doesn’t expect Enjolras to pull out a paper and start reciting words from his speech.

Eponine is pushing past all the boys staring, “Where’d you get those words?”

“I don’t know, they just came to me. As if I’ve always known them.”

“You have. It’s something my mother used to tell me about.”

“You’ve heard that before?” Grantaire’s confused. Eponine ignores him, she’s purely focused on Enjolras.

“What do you know about the Gods?”

“Which ones?”

“Hades and Persephone. It used to be their love that made the world go round.”

“Sure, but this is now.”

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”

“Back in the beginning, there used to be a woman and man, Hades the King of the underworld and Persephone a human who wandered in the gardens above. Hades was a fierce king, he’d bow to no God or man. But Hades saw Persephone and fell in love with her.” Jehan has taken over, which seems fitting to be honest.

“So how does that work then?”

“Well, half of the year Persephone would stay down in Hades, but the other half of the year she could walk in the sun above on the Earth. That’s where the seasons come from, the sun burns twice as bright when Lady Persephone walks on Earth.”

Jehan looks love struck, like it’s all terribly romantic, “The Gods sang the song of their love and world sang it with them.”

“Yes, but that was long ago before everything. Before Hades constructed Hadestown into what it is now.”

“How do you know all this?”

“It’s just from my childhood. Something my mother used to tell me.” Eponine continues,

“Now we wait for Persephone to come up on her train, with her suitcase full of summer to bring the sun back again. We wait for the flowers to bloom and fruit to get ripe. For the world to come back to life. But she never stays up for long anymore, Hades comes to collect her early all the time now.”

“Why does he do that?”

“Well, if you believe the stories, Hades and Persephone aren’t the loved-up couple they used to be. Hades will summon her down early because he’s afraid of her leaving him. She’s bored to death down there. Hades is a mighty king, he owns everything down there but he can’t make her stay. And so, while she’s been gone he’s turned Hadestown into a land of riches, the miners and the diggers bow down to him because he’s given them work. He’s built a factory to produce metal and steel, and a power grid. Now Hadestown is bright and warm throughout all the year, some think that maybe it’s to make Persephone not crave the summer above anymore.”

To be honest, Grantaire is feeling a bit wistful. How would it feel to be that powerful, to be that rich, to have that safety, the freedom to be able to actually live and not survive?

“What do you think?”

“Well my mother always told me when Persephone would say to Hades “what are you trying to achieve with this? This unnatural display. Did you think this would impress me?”, he would say “well can’t you now feel my desire for you? Can’t you feel the fire? Can’t you see my despair at you being gone? Can’t you see the neon sign I’ve made? When you see that think of how lonely you leave me down here.””

“But don’t you see? No matter what he does and how many times she returns to him he can never rid himself of the thought that maybe this time she won’t come back. That’s why the seasons are wrong. That’s why people are starving and the oceans are rising and the winds are so strong. The God’s have forgotten the words of their love.”

“It’s not supposed to be like this. It wasn’t always like this.” Enjolras is throwing on his jacket and packing up, flustered, “I think I know what’s wrong. I think I know how to finish my speech.” And with that he’s out the door.

 

* * *

 

Enjolras is still working on his speech. The world is falling to pieces around him and Enjolras is still working on his speech. There’s a storm coming, stronger than Grantaire has ever seen before. How could he ever have thought Enjolras could save him from anything like this. If the God’s want a storm, the God’s get a storm.

He’s still shivering even though he’s been sat in the Musain for 20 minutes. He’s waiting for Enjolras to finally come back and spend time with him, it means braving the cold again to get back to his flat but honestly anything to get him to spend some time with Grantaire. To maybe start coming up with a back-up plan if (when) he isn’t able to save the world this time.

Grantaire hears a sudden voice beside him, “You look like you could use a drink.” The man he sees beside him is undeniably old, he’s in a three-piece suit that seems to have pinstripes that glimmer when he moves. The man is wearing sunglasses. Indoors. Grantaire knows he shouldn’t really engage with someone who is so clearly a douche but it’s not like he has anyone else around here to talk to, Enjolras is in the back room. Again. Busy working on his speech. As always.

He lets out a bitter laugh, “You’re not wrong. But I’m not really in the position to be buying.”

“That’s a shame for someone pretty and young like yourself.” There’s something off, something that makes Grantaire feel like he has to get away as quickly as possible. But he can’t. He can’t tear himself away. “Poverty can take away a chance before you even get to grasp it.”

“Sorry, I-“ Grantaire starts to speak, he wants to get away but the next thing the man says stops him in his tracks.

“Hadestown.”

“What about it?.”

“Times are hard up here. In Hadestown, there’s wealth, freedom. You’d do well there. And if you’re willing to choose, the choice is yours. It’s not like you have anything to lose up here.”

Grantaire stands. He can’t sit here anymore, he can’t talk to this man. All he wants is to not be hungry, he wants a soft place to land. He wants to lie down forever. Suddenly, he feels dizzy, he can’t think, he can’t breathe. He goes to knock on the backroom. “Enjolras.” He calls through the door.

There’s no reply. He tries twice more. The door opens abruptly, only it’s not who Grantaire wanted to see.

“Grantaire,” Combeferre is looking at him with sad eyes, “He’s really busy right now, sorry. He’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

He’s looking at him with such pity. Grantaire can’t stand it, “Oh yeah, sure man.” He turns to leave, when he’s half way to the door there’s a voice in his ear.

“Let me guess. He’s some kind of writer and he’s penniless? He’ll write you a poem while the power’s out? And you wait on him in this desperate scene while you waste away and suffer? You deserve better. And you can have it.” He hands him something, a slip of paper.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your ticket.”

Grantaire goes home.

The ticket is sitting heavily in his pocket, he lays it on the table. He shouldn’t even consider it. Why is he considering it? He stares at the writing and reads it over and over.

Hadestown.

One Way.

He doesn’t know what to do. His heart aches, he aches for Enjolras. But Enjolras is temporary. One day Enjolras will grow tired of him, one day Enjolras will leave. The world isn’t easy or fair. He needs to think about himself, at the end of the day all he has is himself. He can’t trust Enjolras to save the world, he can only trust himself. If he waits is he going to lose his chance to save himself? Is waiting on Enjolras going to leave him starving?

He loves Enjolras. He loves him with all his heart. But he can’t ignore his head. He can’t ignore his hunger. Love can’t fill his stomach. Love can’t power his heating.

It’s the hardest decision he’s ever had to make, if you had asked him before to choose between Enjolras and something else the former would always have won. But Grantaire is a hungry young man. And so, in the end it’s an easy decision. He texts Eponine, he has to tell someone. By the time she reads his text he’s already gone.

 

* * *

  

Enjolras enters the Musain. “Has anyone seen Grantaire?” They all shake their heads. Enjolras went to his house and he’s not there, he’s been to the Corinthe and he’s not there. Where can he have gone?

That’s when he sees Eponine, looking down at the floor, he stares and her and she stares at the floor. “Where is he?”

“Why do you care?”

“What do you mean why do I care? Because I love him and he’s ignoring my texts. Where is he?”

“Look Enjolras, there’s no point in me telling you, I won't change anthing, he's gone and you’ll never go after him.”

“I will go wherever he is, Eponine.”

“And what if I said he’s down below?”

“What?”

“Down below, Hadestown. I guess you would’ve noticed if you ever looked up from your desk.” Enjolras can’t say anything, he can’t believe it. He spoke to him, when? 3 days ago? 5 days ago? He can’t remember. How could his have happened? He’s been preoccupied yes, but he didn’t think he could just not notice if his boyfriend disappeared off the face of the Earth. How could he be so selfish? So careless? “So, just how far would you go?”

“Anywhere. I’ll go to the end of the earth for him. How do I get there? I don’t have a ticket.”

“Well, I’ve heard there’s another way but I don’t know how true that is.”

“Tell me Eponine.”

“You can walk.”

“Walk?”

“Around the back. Along the track, I’ve heard you can get there that way. It’s not an easy route though, it’ll be the hardest walk of your life. You really want to go?”

“With all my heart.”

“With all your heart,” Eponine is staring at him like he’s lost his mind, “well, that’s a start.”

 

* * *

 

There’s a map drawn on the whiteboard and Eponine is talking him through the way for the third time. He won’t have a compass or map so he needs to remember this.

“You need to keep walking, don’t stop, don’t talk to anyone. Do not give your name to anyone or look anyone in the eye. Keep your head low and stay out of sight. I’m serious Enjolras, it’s dangerous down there. Hadestown isn’t anything like you’ve experienced before, you need to be careful.”

“I’ve got it Eponine. I can do this.”

Combeferre steps forward, he’s worried Enjolras can tell. Before he can get the words out Enjolras stops him, “Ferre, please, I need to do this. I have to get him. Please don’t try to stop me, you can’t.” Combeferre stops, his mouth open, he’s looking at Enjolras with pleading eyes, silently asking him to stay. But he can’t. Grantaire is gone. And so Enjolras is going too.

He turns to everyone, “Thank you. Thank you guys, I love you all. If I don’t come back-“

“Do not say that Enjolras, don’t you dare,” Jehan says, “We love you and we will see you and R soon.”

Enjolras sets off. It’s a long and tiring road. But he thought of Grantaire, and his feet moved him forward. “Wait for me R, I’m coming. I’m coming with you”


End file.
